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Webster’s Dictionary (1828)

98,828 entries. Headwords are matched first, then definition text.

109 words match “DECEIT”

Given to flattery or deceit; flattering; cozening. [Obs.] Amongst the many simoniacal that swarmed in the land, Herbert, Bishop of Thetford, must not be forgotten; nick-named Losing, that is, the Fratterer. Fuller.

Evil machination; guile; deceit. [Obs.] Gower.

MERETRICIOUS a.

Resembling the arts of a harlot; alluring by false show; gaudily and deceitfully ornamental; tawdry; as, meretricious dress or ornaments. -- Mer`e*tri"cious*ly, adv. -- Mer`e*tri"cious*ness, n.

exhaustion, completion; as, the fuel, or the fire, has burned out. "Hear me out." Dryden. Deceitiful men shall not live out half their days. Ps. iv. 23. When the butt is out, we will drink water. Shak.

To make palaver with, or to; to used palaver;to talk idly or deceitfully; to employ flattery; to cajole; as, to palaver artfully. Palavering the little language for her benefit. C. Bront

To act in insincere or deceitful manner; to play false; to equivocate; to shift; to dodge; to trifle. Romans, that have spoke the word, And will not palter. Shak. Who never sold the truth to serve the hour, Nor paltered with eternal God for power. Tennyson.

PATCHINGLY adv.

Knavishy; deceitfully. [Obs.]

Trifling; trickery. [Obs.] "Look . . . into these their deceitful peddleries." Milton.

A pit deceitfully covered to entrap wild beasts or men; a trap of any kind. Sir T. North.

cience of government; one devoted to politics; a statesman. While empiric politicians use deceit. Dryden.

Artful; deceitful; skillful. [Obs.] "Cunning sleights and practick knavery." Spenser.

To undertake a thing falsely and deceitfully, with the purpose of defeating or destroying it.

An artifice; trick; stratagem; wile; fraund; deceit. Ruse de guerre ( Etym: [F.], a stratagem of war.

SELF-DECEPTION n.

SELF-IMPOSTURE n.

Imposture practiced on one's self; self-deceit. South.

False semblance; deceitful appearance; pretense. Beware of the scribes, . . . which devour widows' houses, and for a shew make long prayers. Luke xx. 46. 47.

Not deceitful or artful; honest; sincere. I speak it with a single heart. Shak.

Fawning and deceitful; sly. [Scot.]

Sly; cunning; insinuating; deceitful. So to the coast of Jordan he directs His easy steps, girded with snaky wiles. Milton.

Deceitfully; delusively. [Obs.] Shak.